Tobacco curing system



March 17, 1953 J. E. THOMAS TOBACCO CURING SYSTEM 2 SHEETSSHEET 1 FiledDec. 21, 1949 4 5 5 5 .N 2 mg J.

ATTORNEY March 17, 1953 J. E. THOMAS 2,631,732

TOBACCO CURING SYSTEM Filed Dec. 21, 1949 2 SHEETSSHEET 2 25 4a 4 53 i57% I! 57 60 37 i (9. 66

[ 44.- an 44 I 37 no 66 ;S

JOHN E. THOMAS, INVENTOR.

- ,4 a BY ATTORNEY Patented Mar. 17, 1953 TOBACCO CURING SYSTEM John E.Thomas, Goldston, N. 0., assignor of onehalf to King Roofing andManufacturing 00., Sanford, N. 0., a firm Application December 21, 1949,Serial No. 134,194

' 1 Claim. (Cl. 237-53) This invention relates to the art of tobaccocuring and more especially to an improved hot air distributing systemfor use in tobacco curing barns.

It is an object of this invention to provide an improved hot airdistributing system for tobacco barns having a centrally located heatingplant therein, such as a coal burning furnace, and comprising aplurality of radially extending pipes communicating with the heatingchamberof the heating plant and extending to remote areas of the tobaccobarn and the ends of all or at least a plurality of these pipes beingconnected to a common pipe, which, in turn, has branch pipes connectedthereto and extending outwardly through the wall of the tobacco barn tothus discharge any of the products of combustion from the heatingchamber to the exterior of the barn and to provide extended pipe surfaceareas for radiating the heat and to thus distribute the heat from theheating chamber evenly throughout the barn.

The object heretofore stated and including the means for discharging thegases of the products of combustion exteriorly of the barn are animportant feature of the present invention since heretofore, many of theheating systems and particularly those systems which communicateddirectly with the chamber in which combustion took place, included pipeswhich were open at their ends remote from the combustion chamber andthus discharged the products of combustion directly into the barn. Thishas had a harmful effect on the tobacco being cured, especially wherethe heat was produced through the combustion of hard coal and the likesince most tobacco is damp when it is placed in the tobacco barn andwill sweat during the drying process and, in the instance of anthracitecoal, one of the products of combustion is sulphur which when mixed withthe moisture on the tobacco leaves created an acid condition which wouldburn parts of the tobacco leaves resulting in an inferior leaf.

Some of the objects of the invention havin been stated, other objectswill appear as the description proceeds when taken in connection withthe accompanying drawings in which- Figure 1 is a sectional plan view ofa tobacco curing barn showing a centrally located heating plant thereinand the pipes comprising the improved hot air distributing systemconnected thereto;

Figure 2 is an enlarged vertical section taken substantially along theline 2-2 in Figure 1 and showing a form of heating plant or furnacewhich may be used in conjunction with the hot air distributing system ofthe present invention and also showing a portion of a coal introducingstoker and parts of the hot air distributing pipes associated therewith;

Figure 3 is an enlarged elevation looking substantially along theleft-hand side of Figure 1 but with parts of the near wall omitted so asto show the heating system in elevation disposed within the tobaccobarn;

Figure 41 is a schematic elevation showing the furnace and two of theradially extending pipes connected thereto and is taken lookingsubstantially along the line 4-4 in Figure 1 the remaining pipes areomitted for purposes of clarity;

Figure 5 is an elevation similar to Figure 4 and showing a portion ofthe tobacco barn with parts broken away and also showing the dischargepipes for the products of combustion extending through the walls of thebarn and is taken looking substantially along the line 5-5 in Figure 1.

Referring more specifically to the drawings, the numeral H! broadlydesignates a tobacco barn having a floor H, side walls 12 and I3 andfront and rear walls l4 and I5 respectively. This particular barn has agable roof It provided with a longitudinally extending opening at theridge thereof and having a suitable ventilating means generallydesignated at I! thereon. As is well known, the tobacco barn isprovided. with a plurality of horizontally disposed tier poles 20, onlytwo of which are shown in Figure 3. The structure of the barn may varyconsiderably from that described, the barn shown in the drawings merelybeing shown by way of illustration since the invention resides entirelyin a hot air distributing system to be presently described.

There are many types of heating plants or furnaces wherein the productsof combustion are discharged directly into the heating chamber of thefurnace. Such a type of furnace is shown in Figure 2 and is indicatedbroadly at 25. This particular furnace 25 is a coal burning furnacehaving a fire pct 26 disposed therein to which coal is directed from ahopper 21 which is a part of a stoker broadly designated at 30. Thisstoker may be of any desired construction and includes a driven screwconveyor 3! and a blower, not shown, disposed within: a housing 32, bothof which are driven through suitable gearing, not shown, which is, inturn, driven by an electric motor 34 having electric'wires 35 and 36extending therefrom to a suitable source of electrical energy not shown.

The furnace 25 comprises a jacket 31 having a liner wall of refractorymaterial as on the inside thereof the upper edge of which defines aheating chamber 4! the upper end of which is closed by a top 42 of thejacket 37 and this top 42 being covered with a suitable heat insulationmaterial 43. The jacket 3! is circular, although it may be polygonal ifso desired, and has a plurality of radially spaced openings 44 thereinin which the inner ends of a plurality of radially extending pipes 45 to54, inclusive, of a heat distributing system broadly designated at 56are mounted.

Each of the pipes 45 to 49 has a down-turned pipe elbow 5? connected tothe ends thereof remote from the furnace 25 and which are connected to acommon pipe 5!! which extends in spaced parallel relation to theleft-hand side wall l2 and also extends for substantially half the widthof the barn I!) in spaced relation to the front and rear walls l4 and I5respectively. The common pipe 69 has a pair of discharge pipes El and 82connected thereto and spaced substantially half-way between the pipes 45and 41 and 4'! and 48 respectively.

The radially extending pipes 50 to 54, inclusive, also have suitabledown-turned pipe elbows 65 on the outer ends thereof which are connectedto a common pipe 66 and this pipe 66 also has a pair of spaceddischarged pipes in and H connected thereto and being spaced each sideof the elbow 65 to which the pipe 5'2 is connected. The common pipes 60and 68 may be endless and may be joined together if so desired thesepipes being shown as two separate pipes in the drawings. in order toprovide a space therebetween in which the hopper 21 may be disposed andto also provide a space, for access to the furnace 25 by an operator. Itis evident that the common pipes 60 and 65 are each made up of aplurality of pipe sections and suitable pipe Ts are provided forconnecting these pipe sections to one another as well as to the pipesbranching therefrom, however, a detailed description of the pipesections and the pipe Ts is deemed unnecessary since this constructionis Well known to the art. Each of the discharge pipes 6!, 62, 10 and Hhas a down-turned elbow (3 on the outer end thereof to prevent moistureand any foreign matter from falling into the ends of the discharge pipesGi, 62, 10 and 71.

It is thus seen that I have not only provided an improved heatdistributing system for tobacco barns wherein a greater surface area ofthe pipes is exposed so as to radiate and disribute heat. uniformlythroughout the interior of the tobacco learn. but I have also provided mans for dischar ing the g se or pr duc s of combustion from the furnace.through said pipes n th u h sui able dis har e. pipes to he exterior of.the tobacco barn, these discharge pipes being positioned so, remotelyfromv the centrally located heating plant or furnace as to cause verylittle of the heat to be discharged exteriorly of the barn along withthe products of combustion since substantially all of the heat from theheating chamber 4| will have dissipated through the walls of theradially extending pipes 45 to 54, inclusive, and the common pipes 60and 66 by the time the products of combustion are discharged into theatmosphere. The down-turned elbows 51 and on the ends of the radiallyextending pipes 45' to 54, inclusive, assist in preventing the heatedair from being discharged through the discharge pipes since the air willtend to rise through radiation and convection until cooled.

In the drawings and specification there has been set forth a preferredembodiment of the invention, and although specific terms are employed,they are used in a generic and descriptive sense only, and not forpurposes of limitation, the scope of the invention being defined in theclaim.

I claim:

A tobacco curing system for tobacco barns have ing a furnace thereinprovided with-a combustion chamber and a heating chamber and saidfurnace having a plurality of radially spaced openings thereincommunicating with the heating chamber, said system comprising aplurality of radially extending pipes connected at one of their ends tothe furnace and communicating with the openings in the heating chamber,a down-turned pipe elbow on the outer ends of each of the radiallyextending pipes, a common pipe connected to the open end of each of thedown-turned pipe elbows, at least one discharge pipe connected to thecommon pipe and extend-. ing radially therefrom relative to the furnaceand through the adjacent wall of the barn to thus discharge the productsof combustion from the furnace exteriorly of the barn and also toprovide extended pipe surface areas for radiating and distributing heatuniformly throughout the barn.

JOHN E. THOMAS.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file f hs pa n UNITED STATES PATENTS

